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Mosaic Leadership in Rabbinic Literature CORY DRIVER Word & World Volume 40, Number 2 Spring 2020 Mosaic Leadership in Rabbinic Literature CORY DRIVER abbinic sources depict Moses’s struggle to faithfully pursue God’s call, to live into his calling as a leader for the people, as a battle against increasingly bold attemptsR to weaken his leadership. In a pattern that many parish pastors will find familiar, Dathan and Abiram (Num 16) initially question the wisdom and source of Moses’s call to leadership. Moving on from merely questioning his leadership, the notorious pair then refuses to follow him. Later they actively seek to under- mine his leadership, humiliate him, and prevent others from believing that God had called Moses as a leader. Finally, they set themselves up as alternative leaders and attempt to seize Moses’s role. The main rabbinic source referenced here is the collection of Midrash Rab- bah, particularly Shemot/Exodus and Bmidbar/Numbers Rabbah. These works are cited by name in the writings of Nachmanides, the great Catalan rabbi of the thirteenth century; they can come from no later, though perhaps they come from as early as the ninth or tenth century CE.1 Numbers Rabbah, particularly, follows Midrash Tanchuma—word for word in several sections—and reflects a tradition 1 H. L. Strack, and Günter Stemberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 309–311. Being the leader of the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt and through the wilderness was not an easy thing, and Moses had all he could do to hold the people together. The wandering narratives, and the rabbinic sources that reflect on this, show Moses trusting God and trying to be a patient leader for the sake of God’s mission. 180 Mosaic Leadership in Rabbinic Literature that was recorded (though it continued to undergo recensions) around 400 CE at the latest.2 The collections are largely sermonic, rather than strictly legal material, and focus on filling in perceived gaps in the biblical text. The stories are meant to illustrate how Moses interacted with the people under his leadership. They were, and are, taught by community leaders, who may face challenges from oth- ers to their own leadership—as everyone leading other humans does. It is in this respect that I am most interested in the rabbinic literature on how Moses handled conflicts with detractors—what it teaches us about wise leadership in congrega- tional communities. Dathan and Abiram being swallowed up into the earth has been used in Christian communities to justify clergy abuse of congregants, even calling for violence against peaceful, dissenting voices. The rabbinic tradition underscores repeatedly that the role of Moses as a human leader was to protect his people from harmful influences, to be sure. But the midrashic collections also highlight how Moses was constantly ready to reconcile with his detractors and welcome them in the community. The rabbinic and biblical accounts underscore that no human expelled Dathan and Abiram from the Israelite camp, much less committed vio- lence against them. Moses, in this rabbinic literature, is a model of a wise, peace- making leader. The rabbinic tradition underscores repeatedly that the role of Moses as a human leader was to protect his people from harmful influences, to be sure. But the midrashic collections also highlight how Moses was constantly ready to reconcile with his detractors and welcome them in the community. In interpreting Dathan and Abiram as constant challenges to Moses’s leader- ship throughout his life, the rabbis explain why Moses asked God at the burning bush what he should do if the Israelites did not follow him, listen to him, or believe that God had appeared to him (Exod 4:1). The rabbinic tradition holds that even before Moses fled Egypt to dwell in Midian, he had faced off against the men who would be his adversaries for the next several decades. The rabbinic tradition poses Dathan and Abiram as the cause of Moses slay- ing the Egyptian. Why would Moses, who had grown up in a slave-holding con- text, suddenly kill an overseer? Beatings would not have been uncommon, and it is impossible that Moses had not seen this before, even while growing up. The midrash insists that something more nefarious was going on. Exodus Rabbah con- cludes that the Egyptian taskmasters (Exod 1:11) used to go to the Hebrew foremen (Exod 5:6–21) to wake them up so that the Hebrew foremen, in turn, would wake 2 Strack and Stemberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, 305. 181 Driver up the Hebrew workers.3 But when one of the Egyptian taskmasters (literally, “princes of fainting/knockouts”) entered the house of a particular Hebrew fore- man, he noticed the sleeping wife of that foreman and decided to return while the man was out working. The Egyptian taskmaster returned and raped the wife of the Hebrew foreman (by having sex with her in the predawn darkness so that she thought he was her husband). Upon returning home from work, the Hebrew fore- man noticed that something was wrong, and his wife confided in him what she had realized had happened. When the Egyptian taskmaster returned the next morn- ing, the Hebrew overseer accused the Egyptian of raping his wife. The Egyptian proudly admitted that he had in fact committed the offense, and then attempted to kill the Hebrew foreman so he could take the Hebrew woman as his own. It was in this situation that Moses found himself. The biblical text says that before Moses laid a hand on anyone, he “looked this way and that, and saw that there was no man” (Exod 2:12). Moses looked around, and did not see the Egyp- tian as a man because he had used intrigue to rape an unsuspecting woman, the wife of another man. Moses did not see the Hebrew foreman as a man because he was already beaten severely and was close to death.4 Moses did not see the wail- ing wife of the Hebrew foreman as a man, because she was an aggrieved woman. Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Nehemiah add that when Moses looked around, he did not see any other “man” who could right this horrible injustice.5 Moses alone had the power to step in and prevent serial rape and murder. The rabbis argue that the Holy Spirit even revealed to Moses sections of Leviticus prior to Sinai in order to instruct Moses what to do.6 God informed Moses that anyone who kills a man shall be put to death (Lev 24:17) and that adul- terers who sleep with the wives of other men should be put to death (Lev 20:10).7 Moses, guided by the Holy Spirit, by a pre-revelation of Leviticus, a sense of the injustice at the situation that went far beyond the ordinary occurrence of masters beating enslaved people, and by the conviction that he was the only person around to immediately put an end to this evil, killed the Egyptian rapist and attempted- murderer and hid his body in the sand. Moses, in the rabbinic literature, cautioned the man, “You are compared to sand, and just as sand when taken from one place to another emits no sound, so must this thing be hidden between you [and me], that nothing be heard of it.”8 However, the Hebrew foreman was not quiet. The next day, Moses found two Hebrews fighting and said to the one who was Exod 2:13). The Hebrew man) ”?( רֵ ֶ ֽע ָך) wrong, “Why are you striking your friend asked who had made Moses their leader and whether Moses was going to kill him 3 Exodus Rabbah 1:28. 4 Exodus Rabbah 1:29. 5 Exodus Rabbah 1:29. 6 Exodus Rabbah 1:28. 7 Cited in Exodus Rabbah 1:28. 8 H. Freedman, and Maurice Simon, Midrash Rabbah, vol. 3, Exodus (London: Soncino, 1939), 37. Translating Exodus Rabbah 1:29. 182 Mosaic Leadership in Rabbinic Literature as he had killed the Egyptian. Immediately, Pharaoh heard of the matter and sought to kill Moses (Exod 2:15). The rabbis connect all of these events. The Hebrew foreman whose life Moses had saved the previous day was now the man in the wrong beating his close friend. The Hebrew foreman had decided to divorce his wife after she had been raped by the Egyptian, but his friend was interceding on her behalf, counseling the foreman to stay with her and not subject her to another hardship, namely divorce. It is easy to imagine that words became heated in a discussion of sexual purity and permis- sibility of spousal relations after rape and that the two men came to blows. Moses separated them, but the attacker lashed out at him, revealing how Moses had saved his life by killing an Egyptian the previous day. Not being content to frighten Moses, but actually wanting to have his rescuer killed, the wicked Hebrew foreman then informed Pharaoh directly.9 In seeking a pair of treacherous friends who have unexplained antipathy to Moses in the bibli- cal text, the rabbis landed on the brothers Dathan and Abiram, who participate in a major rebellion against Moses in Numbers 16. They said that Dathan had been the foreman who had been almost beaten to death and whose wife was raped.10 He then fought the next day with his brother, Abiram. The two men so resented Moses for interfering in their altercation that they would resist and seek to overthrow his leadership for the rest of their lives. The rabbis retrojected the two brothers’ hatred of Moses’s leadership all the way back into Egypt, and they became ongoing foils for Moses’s efforts to lead God’s people.11 In this first interaction with Dathan and Abiram, Moses, though not yet invited to lead God’s people, still displayed characteristics that he would later be praised for.
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